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The life and correspondence of Henry St. George Tucker
The life and correspondence of Henry St George Tucker Author:John William Kaye Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: COMMENCEMENT OF HIS CAREER. 36 CHAPTER II. Early Indian Life of Henry St.George Tucker—Residence with Mr. Bruere— Departure for Gyah—Residence with Mr. Law... more »—Mr. Law and the Mocur- rcry System—Appointment to the Secretary's Office—Loss of his first Earnings — Appointed Assistant to the Commercial Agent at Commer- colly—Residence at Hurriaul—Early Writings — Opinions on the Land Assessment—On Excise and Gunge Duties. It was in the month of August, 1786, that Henry St.George Tucker found himself located in the house of his maternal uncle, Mr. Bruere, at that period one of the secretaries to Government. It does not seem that he had at any time a fixed intention of following the profession into which he had been so hastily and unadvisedly launched. If he had, it soon be- came apparent to him that there was very little inducement to adhere to such a design. He left his ship at Calcutta, and looked the world in the face. " I entered the world," he wrote more than half a century afterwards to one of his sons, " without money or friends; and I had to struggle for almost fifteen years against poverty and debt. I lived for a time on about sixty rupees per month, in Rannee- Moodee-Gully, in a small hovel which I had to maintain against a colony of rats. My health occasionallyfailed, but a removal to this country or the comforts of marriage never entered into my contemplation. So far from it, I was obliged to assist others, in spite of my pecuniary embarrassments. Well, after all, here I am at the age of sixty-nine, enjoying a fair state of health and measure of strength, with every blessing which I could desire. This, too, after bringing up a large family with a moderate fortune, not one sixpence of which was disreputably acquired. . . . Consider these premises and the result—and t...« less